Junkers I've owned

Right now I have a 99 Saturn with 157 K on it and I intend to get over 200K. My previous car was s Geo Metro that I put out of its misery at 175 K. I had to carry a gallon of water around and refill the coolant tank about twice a day. Then there was my old Willy's station. The passenger's door would pop open when I hit a pot hole. I fixed it with a door bolt. And, if I hit a pot hole full of water my feet got wet. When I drove it across town, I never knew if I was going to come back in it. Ever have the "pleasure" of driving a car that you had to open the window and reach outside to open the door? What are your junker stories?

Last summer drove a little Chevy that I had the door duct taped shut - that was fun. Now I have "upgraded" to a '93 Camry that keeps driving me insane with little stuff going wrong with it. Hopefully by July or August I can pay off enough debt to afford something new.

In the mid-60's, a room-mate & I chipped in and bought a very used Opel sedan. First investment was in a brake job. We took off from Royal Oak to Flint where we were going to work at the Chevy V8 plant for a semester. No owners manual, funny German icons on dashboard. We laughed at a yellow light that kept blinking on and off on the dash until there was a very loud BANG and the car quit. Shoved it into neutral and drifted over to the shoulder. Opened the hood and there was the end of piston rod sticking out through the side of the block. Funny little yellow light was trying to tell us to add oil.

“Death comes when memories of the past exceed the vision for the future.”

I have a twice "totalled" 1993 Grand Prix with a 163,000 miles the OD. I have two packaging taped-on side mirrors (duct tape is just too "tacky"), a taped in place front-drivers side blinker, a dented hood, mis-aligned bumpers, a rusted through rear passenger side quarter panel, a thoroughly oxidized paint job, and a shot rear suspension. My rear drivers side wheel is titled inward about 5 degrees.

Inside, my two rear windows don't work, the power locks often don't work and the key lock is nearly frozen in all doors except the driver's side. The stearing column had a little electrical short and began to smoke. Now my blinkers only work if I pull the blinker arm slightly towards me when selecting right or left.

Despite all this, I refuse to let it go until the wheels litterally fall off or the transmission fails--whichever comes first.

Oh, the A/C doesn't work, and I'm in Arizona. Also, I have a loose positive battery cable to occasionally loosens itself and falls off the battery. I perpetually keep a pair of pliers in my car as I've had stalls at stop signs, in the middle of turns (no power steering) and on the freeways.

This car made a Phx to Las Vegas round trip last fall--barely. The transmission nearly died in Kingman where I had to add 4 quarts of transmission fluid.

I had a 95 Chevy Lumina that had an interesting self paint job (not done by me) and I paid $1500 for it, the A/C crapped out after moving to NJ, it had a few quirks to driving it, but I drove it approximately 50K miles and put a total of $500 in work/maintenance in it so it came out to be 4 cents a mile to drive. I have a 98 Jeep Cherokee that is sort of a bucket but I love it anyways.

"He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?"Jeremiah 22:16

The biggest heap I ever owned was a 1980 AMC Concord. I drove it for about a year and a half and never put any money into it apart from gas (and one oil change). Bought it used in 1991 and it had I think around 100k on the odometer (remember this was made back in the heyday of the 'disposable car' and models like this weren't intended to live on much beyond 100k). I recall paying $350 for it and by the time I was done with it it was worth probably $50 billion....(actually like WYP's AMC this one burned up too.)

To close the passenger side door you had to be outside and exert upward pressure on the door handle...until the handle broke off one day and then you just climbed over the driver to get out. The rear view mirror broke off and I considered buying some of that special glue to reattach it, but upon further consideration decided not to because the car shimmied violently if it ever exceeded 50 mph and I figured that there was little need to look behind me as everyone else on the road must be in front, having passed long ago. Nice features: there were a number of tears in the seat upholstery that made for handy secret compartments. True, summer months sucked as the air conditioner didn't work and only the rear passenger side window was capable of going both down and up, but during the winter time this forced dates to snuggle up close for warmth.

People will miss that it once meant something to be Southern or Midwestern. It doesn't mean much now, except for the climate. The question, “Where are you from?” doesn't lead to anything odd or interesting. They live somewhere near a Gap store, and what else do you need to know? - Garrison Keillor

“As soon as public service ceases to be the chief business of the citizens, and they would rather serve with their money than with their persons, the State is not far from its fall”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Technically, I didn't own either of these vehicles, but I drove them for a time: my brother's early '70s Vega and my dad's early '70s Rabbit. The Vega's driver's side door didn't work and you had to climb out the window like a NASCAR driver. The compression was shot and it had a top speed of about 35mph. POS.

Dad's Rabbit was 'Safety Green' which dad couldn't stand so he painted it (with a roller and house paint, no less) his favorite battleship grey. The driver's window wouldn't close all the way so you had to have plastic bags on the driver's seat to avoid looking like you had a weak bladder. Since the inside was frequently wet, you often had to scrape frost from the inside of the windshield.

I don't own this, but my office keeps a 1991 Chevy Corsica, and they expect us to use it. The paint is chipped, steering wheel shakes when the car idles; weatherstripping hangs from the windows; it makes a strange rattling sound when it starts, and it had an inch of ice on the driver's floor all winter. Someone pulled out the backseat to get into the trunk, and the seat never went back into place; it just sticks out from the back of the car. It still runs, but last week the wheels stopped turning. Thank God. And they will look into repairing it.

I was driving it in an expensive neighborhood, and the town police followed me until he saw that it has municipal plates.

1994 Mercury Tracer. 236k miles on it. The car was red but has since faded to a lovely shade of pink. Car stalls at from time to time at red lights or if you turn too slowly. Have to be carfeul to not brush up against the rear quarterpanel when filling the gas tank, because the rusted metal will disintergrate if you touch it. The steering wheel shakes like an earthquake when the car is ideling. Anytime the temperature is below 25 degrees, the shocks don't work and the car violently rocks with any imperfection in the pavement. In Feb. of 2008, I actually drove the car from Minnesota to Arkansas. That was an awful 12 hours!

The car is actually the GF's, but she got it for about $200 4 years ago from a family friend.

Alternate response to thread title:
I've usually relied on more modern aircraft than Junkers for my tactical bombing needs.

People will miss that it once meant something to be Southern or Midwestern. It doesn't mean much now, except for the climate. The question, “Where are you from?” doesn't lead to anything odd or interesting. They live somewhere near a Gap store, and what else do you need to know? - Garrison Keillor

I had a hand-me-down (from Pops) 1982 Saab 900 Turbo. My grandfather bought it cheap at a dealer's auction as it had no transmission. After finding a used tranny and fixing it at my grandfather's shop (AKA Drunk Hungarian Auto Repair) it ran pretty well. However, the transmission was so loose that when in first gear (or any gear for that matter) you could move the stick shift from side-to-side as if it were in neutral. Also, there was a nice crack in the steering coloumn, so you'd have to fill it with power steering fluid every other day.
After it being parked for a while, mice got in and nested in the glove compartment (after chewing through all the wiring) and we couldn't get it started again.

We ended up donating that car for a write-off.

Makes me want to buy a second hand heap. I'm trying to kill our 1998 Saturn that "consumes" oil (it doesn't smoke or leak, yet the oil is going away), but it won't die.
I'd like to look into a vintage Volvo 200-series (pre-1986) or maybe a Mercedes 240D, you know, the old ones that get up to 900,000 miles on a well-built Diesel engine.

You get all squeezed up inside/Like the days were carved in stone/You get all wired up inside/And it's bad to be alone

You can go out, you can take a ride/And when you get out on your own/You get all smoothed out inside/And it's good to be alone
-Peart

As I type this, our 96 Chevy Lumina is in the shop for some as yet undiagnosed ailment that's making it run, and idle, a little rough. No AC anymore, passenger side power window no longer works (cause I removed the motor--it would go down, but not back up. After the wife inadvertanly opened it in the middle of winter, I thought it best to preempt any further problem like that), rocker panels have rusted into oblivion, and it now has patches of gray primer peeking out from beneath it's white paint (characteristic of that model/color, it seems).

My wife bought it when it had 26,000 miles on it.

It came within a few hundred dollars of being "totalled" by the insurance company half it's lifetime ago, when she hit a deer with it.

It has 289,890 some miles on it now. I'm aiming for 300,000, which might be a stretch, since we just bought a newer one for my wife to commute in, and I don't put as many miles on as she does.

There's no way I'll call it a junker though. Finest automobile I've ever had the privilege to drive...

Fat Cat

I didnt own it but it was assigned to me by the city that I worked for. It was an old valiant, that the drivers door didnt shut, and the defroster on the drivers side didnt work, so in the winter time I always had to take another guy with me to look out the front window on the passenger side to guide me because the drivers side defroster didnt work, and naturally because the drivers side door didnt work I had to drive holding the door shut. I always had to make up an excuse for there to be another person with me. There were other cars in the fleet just like this. When we complained we were asked if we wanted to quit. This was a city with 200,000 population. At this time, there were no more valiants being made so that was how old it was. I dont remember how many miles but I remember I did laugh about it at the time because what else could I do until I found another job.

A city I worked for had siezed a Toyota pick up in a drug bust. They kept it for the city forester that I supervised. As much of a wreck that it was, it ran great. I found some old park & rec logos in a storage rom and slapped them on the doors, in an attempt to embarrass the City Counsil to get us a new truck. Didn't work.